It's such a taboo topic for some reason and yet it's touched so many of us. I read this blog recently and it was a blessing to my heart to pause and think on our experience in losing our first little baby almost 3.5 years ago. If you have the time or desire, read this blog. Very helpful in processing if you have experienced miscarriage yourself and also very helpful if you haven't and want to know what to say or not say or how to love a friend who is/has gone through this.
Joe and I did talk about our three babies at mother's day time. I never want to be so caught up this season with two little babes that I forget our first baby that we lost and how much I longed for him/her and how hard the ups and downs were of not being sure if things would be ok or not. And then how very sad I was after miscarrying and how much those affections for being a mother had been stirred in my heart. And then how those aching desires have been fulfilled in having Lucy and Noah. Yet, there will always be those desires to know and love our first little one.
The Lord worked significantly in me during those hardest of days and I know that season of loss, hurt and pain were certainly not in vain for Joe or myself. I read those "Trust" and "Contentment" devotionals by Lydia Brownback over and over and over because I was struggling so much with both of those topics. And I feel like I truly got to a point of trusting my future to the Lord and being content with where he had me in my marriage, job, church, life....
And then we were blessed with children - Lucy Joy came on the exact weekend I had miscarried 2 years later and little Noah Joseph a year a half later.
I have no idea what the future will hold and what joys and hardships are yet to come. But I pray that at the end of each day I can say
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised."
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
What can you really afford?
This was a really thought provoking & convicting article from Real Simple for me in the midst of already thinking through my spending habits and why I buy.....
I highly recommend!
"Last January, at a department-store outlet, I purchased a pastel-flecked sweater, gray corduroy jeans, and a pair of powder blue silk trousers—all designer, and all for around $300. The pants especially felt like a coup: Originally priced at $1,200, they were on sale for $92. What a bargain, I thought, as I handed over my credit card. Although none of my purchases were necessities (powder blue silk trousers?) and I was still feeling the pinch of the previous month’s holiday gift-buying bonanza, I went into the fuzzy, soft-focus state that frequently overtakes me when I’m shopping. Suddenly, I lack the ability to reason, to think of anything—the health-insurance premium I have yet to pay that month, the article for which I’ve yet to be paid—except the purchase at hand. I might have remained in this gauzy mode had the saleswoman not intruded: “You’re quite the shopper,” she said, glancing down at her computer screen. “In the past seven years, you’ve spent enough to buy a small car.”
Setting aside the meddlesome strangeness of her comment, I was mortified. I began to contemplate, for the first time ever, how difficult it is for me to wrap my mind around what I can and can’t afford. I am someone who digs out the dregs at the bottom of a tube of lipstick before buying a new one and who refuses to order soy milk steamed from the coffee shop because it costs 15 cents more. Yet I’d frittered away this much money on clothing? I thought about all the other ways I could have used that money: I could have opened a retirement fund, made a down payment on a small house, or, yes, bought a car. I wondered, as I left the store, why I always feel that I can afford to buy new clothes, but I seem to believe that these other expenditures are out of my reach.
The question of what is and isn’t affordable would appear to be a fairly straightforward one. After all, if we have the money to pay for something—either outright at the time of purchase or when the credit-card bill comes due—then we can afford it, right?
It turns out that reality is more complicated. “People have very elastic ideas about what they can afford and what they can’t,” says psychologist Michael Cunningham, a professor at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, who studies monetary decisions. “Sometimes people think,If I can find a way to pay for it and take it home, that means I can afford it, as opposed to considering whether it fits into a strict budget.” After all, when we’re in line, about to spring for a stash of fancy new cosmetics, say, or a high-end bottle of wine, how many of us are mentally reviewing the finer details of our budget? In those moments, our notion of what we can afford is influenced by a host of other factors. According to the experts, here are five key influences.
I highly recommend!
"Last January, at a department-store outlet, I purchased a pastel-flecked sweater, gray corduroy jeans, and a pair of powder blue silk trousers—all designer, and all for around $300. The pants especially felt like a coup: Originally priced at $1,200, they were on sale for $92. What a bargain, I thought, as I handed over my credit card. Although none of my purchases were necessities (powder blue silk trousers?) and I was still feeling the pinch of the previous month’s holiday gift-buying bonanza, I went into the fuzzy, soft-focus state that frequently overtakes me when I’m shopping. Suddenly, I lack the ability to reason, to think of anything—the health-insurance premium I have yet to pay that month, the article for which I’ve yet to be paid—except the purchase at hand. I might have remained in this gauzy mode had the saleswoman not intruded: “You’re quite the shopper,” she said, glancing down at her computer screen. “In the past seven years, you’ve spent enough to buy a small car.”
Setting aside the meddlesome strangeness of her comment, I was mortified. I began to contemplate, for the first time ever, how difficult it is for me to wrap my mind around what I can and can’t afford. I am someone who digs out the dregs at the bottom of a tube of lipstick before buying a new one and who refuses to order soy milk steamed from the coffee shop because it costs 15 cents more. Yet I’d frittered away this much money on clothing? I thought about all the other ways I could have used that money: I could have opened a retirement fund, made a down payment on a small house, or, yes, bought a car. I wondered, as I left the store, why I always feel that I can afford to buy new clothes, but I seem to believe that these other expenditures are out of my reach.
The question of what is and isn’t affordable would appear to be a fairly straightforward one. After all, if we have the money to pay for something—either outright at the time of purchase or when the credit-card bill comes due—then we can afford it, right?
It turns out that reality is more complicated. “People have very elastic ideas about what they can afford and what they can’t,” says psychologist Michael Cunningham, a professor at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, who studies monetary decisions. “Sometimes people think,If I can find a way to pay for it and take it home, that means I can afford it, as opposed to considering whether it fits into a strict budget.” After all, when we’re in line, about to spring for a stash of fancy new cosmetics, say, or a high-end bottle of wine, how many of us are mentally reviewing the finer details of our budget? In those moments, our notion of what we can afford is influenced by a host of other factors. According to the experts, here are five key influences.
1. A Culture of Consumption
My grandmother, who is a child of the Great Depression, is perplexed by my need for so many clothes. “I always had three bras, three skirts, and three sweaters,” she is fond of saying. “One in the drawer, one in the wash, and one on.” Her frugal ethos—buy only what you need; live within your means—was more prevalent at midcentury.
Back in 1959, the personal-savings rate (the percentage of disposable income set aside for retirement or other savings) was 7.5 percent; even in 1973, it was 10.5 percent. But as early as World War II, our spending habits had already begun to shift. Returning veterans educated under the G.I. Bill found well-paying work; they bought homes, which had to be filled with furniture and appliances, and so they shopped.
Consumer goods soon became the mainstay of the U.S. economy. Between 1945 and 1949, Americans bought 20 million refrigerators, 21.4 million cars, 5.5 million stoves, and 11.6 million televisions, according to historian Elaine Tyler May. Not only was buying promoted as a patriotic duty, but the war had left Americans “wealthy and acquisitive, resulting in a shift from saving (or Depression-era deprivation) to instant gratification that has characterized the average American’s personal economy ever since,” writes Colin Harrison in American Culture in the 1990s ($29.50,amazon.com).
By the early 1970s, rising wages and decreasing family size were among several factors that induced consumers to spend proportionally less of their household budget on necessities, like utilities and food, and more on discretionary expenditures, such as entertainment and recreation. The share of women in the workforce, which had risen to 37 percent, further increased total household income.
It was in the late 1970s and 1980s that consumer spending began to truly surge, as lower- and middle-income Americans gained greater access to consumer credit and home equity; the savings rate began an accompanying decline. By the mid- 2000s, the savings rate had dipped as low as 1.5 percent, and low-interest adjustable-rate mortgages persuaded people to buy McMansions they couldn’t afford.
Fueled by consumer credit, clever advertising, and enticing marketing campaigns, mass consumption has become the hallmark of our modern society. Everywhere we go, everywhere we look—on television, on billboards, during movie previews, as soon as we log on to the Internet—we are urged to buy. “The decisions we make are largely a reflection of the environment we’re in,” says Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, and the author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions ($16, amazon.com). “And almost everything in our environment tells us to spend money now, spend attention now, spend effort now.” Cunningham agrees: “Today’s cultural dynamic doesn’t emphasize thriftiness but instead encourages immediate gratification. And there are a lot of cultural forces encouraging people in that direction.” He adds, “We have created a consumer culture that is highly effective at getting people to consume.” Even when we can’t afford to.
Back in 1959, the personal-savings rate (the percentage of disposable income set aside for retirement or other savings) was 7.5 percent; even in 1973, it was 10.5 percent. But as early as World War II, our spending habits had already begun to shift. Returning veterans educated under the G.I. Bill found well-paying work; they bought homes, which had to be filled with furniture and appliances, and so they shopped.
Consumer goods soon became the mainstay of the U.S. economy. Between 1945 and 1949, Americans bought 20 million refrigerators, 21.4 million cars, 5.5 million stoves, and 11.6 million televisions, according to historian Elaine Tyler May. Not only was buying promoted as a patriotic duty, but the war had left Americans “wealthy and acquisitive, resulting in a shift from saving (or Depression-era deprivation) to instant gratification that has characterized the average American’s personal economy ever since,” writes Colin Harrison in American Culture in the 1990s ($29.50,amazon.com).
By the early 1970s, rising wages and decreasing family size were among several factors that induced consumers to spend proportionally less of their household budget on necessities, like utilities and food, and more on discretionary expenditures, such as entertainment and recreation. The share of women in the workforce, which had risen to 37 percent, further increased total household income.
It was in the late 1970s and 1980s that consumer spending began to truly surge, as lower- and middle-income Americans gained greater access to consumer credit and home equity; the savings rate began an accompanying decline. By the mid- 2000s, the savings rate had dipped as low as 1.5 percent, and low-interest adjustable-rate mortgages persuaded people to buy McMansions they couldn’t afford.
Fueled by consumer credit, clever advertising, and enticing marketing campaigns, mass consumption has become the hallmark of our modern society. Everywhere we go, everywhere we look—on television, on billboards, during movie previews, as soon as we log on to the Internet—we are urged to buy. “The decisions we make are largely a reflection of the environment we’re in,” says Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, and the author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions ($16, amazon.com). “And almost everything in our environment tells us to spend money now, spend attention now, spend effort now.” Cunningham agrees: “Today’s cultural dynamic doesn’t emphasize thriftiness but instead encourages immediate gratification. And there are a lot of cultural forces encouraging people in that direction.” He adds, “We have created a consumer culture that is highly effective at getting people to consume.” Even when we can’t afford to.
2. Emotional Buying
Chances are, you probably can’t count the number of times that you’ve bought something because you thought to yourself,I’ve had a bad day at work, so I’m going to treat myself, or, I’m exhausted, so I’ll buy this because it’s convenient. (The latter often translates into excessive dinners out.) “A lot of our financial decisions are made with our emotional brain,” says Brad Klontz, Psy.D., a Hawaii-based financial psychologist and the author of Mind Over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders That Threaten Our Financial Health ($25, amazon.com). “When we become emotionally charged, we become rationally challenged. If we’re feeling lonely or sad or anxious, for example, that limits the capacity of our prefrontal cortex to regulate our behavior and makes us more vulnerable to buying.”
When we buy for emotional reasons, the assumption is usually that a particular purchase—whether it’s a brand-new flatscreen television or the latest It Bag—is going to make us happy, or at least happier than we currently are. However, research has shown that while there is an immediate gain in contentment from purchasing something, “you adapt to the pleasure that you get, and then you take the item for granted,” says Miriam Tatzel, Ph.D., a professor of human development at the State University of New York Empire State College, in Nanuet, and the editor of the forthcoming volume Well-Being in the Material World. This tendency, known as “hedonic adaptation,” can lead to a phenomenon called the “hedonic treadmill,” in which we are driven “to acquire ever more new and thrilling things,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside, who studies human happiness. “You’re always wanting more or better,” adds Tatzel, “or looking to upgrade what you already have.”
When we buy for emotional reasons, the assumption is usually that a particular purchase—whether it’s a brand-new flatscreen television or the latest It Bag—is going to make us happy, or at least happier than we currently are. However, research has shown that while there is an immediate gain in contentment from purchasing something, “you adapt to the pleasure that you get, and then you take the item for granted,” says Miriam Tatzel, Ph.D., a professor of human development at the State University of New York Empire State College, in Nanuet, and the editor of the forthcoming volume Well-Being in the Material World. This tendency, known as “hedonic adaptation,” can lead to a phenomenon called the “hedonic treadmill,” in which we are driven “to acquire ever more new and thrilling things,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside, who studies human happiness. “You’re always wanting more or better,” adds Tatzel, “or looking to upgrade what you already have.”
3. Keeping Up with the Joneses
Many of us tend to prioritize purchases that we believe will raise our esteem in the eyes of others. We are convinced that a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes, with their signature fire-engine red bottoms, or a house in the right neighborhood will signal our success. “People who are really focused on external validation will tend to value possessions that have more public display,” says Tatzel. Sometimes people will also forgo other, arguably more important, expenditures, like upgrading the furnace, in order to make these flashy purchases.
Experts say that many of us feel a strong compulsion to buy what those in our workplace or social milieu possess; we believe we need, should have, and can afford whatever they have. “It’s part of the herding instinct, and it is meant to increase our survival,” says Klontz. “Which worked great back when you needed warmer clothes to live through the winter or better access to the food supply, but which works terribly in modern culture, where we’re inundated with media.”
Our constant exposure to images of the luxurious homes on The Real Housewives or the extravagant fashions of tabloid celebrities has caused that instinct to backfire. “Years ago, we used to compare ourselves horizontally, to the Joneses next door,” says Manisha Thakor, the founder and CEO of Santa Fe–based MoneyZen Wealth Management. “And typically the Joneses next door had incomes similar to ours. When you were looking at what your neighbors were doing, it really was a pretty accurate reflection of what you could be doing.” Now “we compare ourselves vertically to people in wildly different income spectrums,” Thakor explains. We try to “keep up not just with the Joneses but with the Zeta-Joneses,” she says. “We look to the rich and famous, and we try to emulate their lifestyles.”
Experts say that many of us feel a strong compulsion to buy what those in our workplace or social milieu possess; we believe we need, should have, and can afford whatever they have. “It’s part of the herding instinct, and it is meant to increase our survival,” says Klontz. “Which worked great back when you needed warmer clothes to live through the winter or better access to the food supply, but which works terribly in modern culture, where we’re inundated with media.”
Our constant exposure to images of the luxurious homes on The Real Housewives or the extravagant fashions of tabloid celebrities has caused that instinct to backfire. “Years ago, we used to compare ourselves horizontally, to the Joneses next door,” says Manisha Thakor, the founder and CEO of Santa Fe–based MoneyZen Wealth Management. “And typically the Joneses next door had incomes similar to ours. When you were looking at what your neighbors were doing, it really was a pretty accurate reflection of what you could be doing.” Now “we compare ourselves vertically to people in wildly different income spectrums,” Thakor explains. We try to “keep up not just with the Joneses but with the Zeta-Joneses,” she says. “We look to the rich and famous, and we try to emulate their lifestyles.”
4. Easy Access to Credit
The mere fact that we only have to swipe our plastic (or enter its digits online) to make a purchase can cause many of us to feel that we can afford just about anything we desire. “Is the credit card not maxed out? That means you can pay for it. So that means it’s affordable!” says Cunningham, articulating a common consumer mind-set. Since physical money never changes hands, we’re apt to forget that actual dollars and cents are at stake; the “pain of paying” is eliminated, to use a term from behavioral economics. This may explain why we’re often irked by the price of small, quotidian items (remember that soy milk?). We tend to pay for these with cash and thus feel the transaction viscerally—whereas large purchases, such as costly patio furniture, might not bother us as much because we usually use a credit card, and the money exchanged remains invisible.
Credit cards also expose a common human weakness: People find it challenging to project into the future and imagine the opportunity cost associated with a purchase—that is, the trade-off, since money used to do or buy one thing can’t be used to do or buy something else. “Decisions about money are all about now versus later,” says Ariely. “If you buy a cup of coffee, you buy shoes, you buy a car, something will have to give, but the reality is that it’s really hard to understand what will give.” Will you not have money for a new dishwasher? Will you have to brown-bag it for a month? Credit cards obviously eliminate the need to make a choice.
Credit cards also expose a common human weakness: People find it challenging to project into the future and imagine the opportunity cost associated with a purchase—that is, the trade-off, since money used to do or buy one thing can’t be used to do or buy something else. “Decisions about money are all about now versus later,” says Ariely. “If you buy a cup of coffee, you buy shoes, you buy a car, something will have to give, but the reality is that it’s really hard to understand what will give.” Will you not have money for a new dishwasher? Will you have to brown-bag it for a month? Credit cards obviously eliminate the need to make a choice.
5. Getting a “Good Deal”
Finally, we tend to think that an item is affordable when we’re convinced that we’re getting a good deal. We tell ourselves that we won’t find this bargain elsewhere, that we absolutely need five pairs of the same discounted leggings, or that we’re preventing greater monetary losses by purchasing this, the on-sale cookware, rather than the full-price Le Creuset. We forget that money always has an opportunity cost and that even if we’re getting a bargain, we won’t have that money to use in another way.
Plus, here’s the catch: Because we’ve ostensibly saved money, we’re then more likely to overspend. “You save your money in one area, and you may end up spending it in another,” says Christopher Daggett, a senior associate at the New York City– based behavioral consulting firm ideas42. Daggett cites as an example a study in which users of Airbnb, the peer-to-peer lodging company, saved money on lodging in San Francisco but then ended up staying longer and spending more on their trips overall than did hotel guests. Aren’t we all guilty of this? A friend pays for dinner, so you take a cab home instead of public transportation. You don’t eat out for a week, so you feel you have the leeway to splurge on an expensive haircut. Whatever the item or service in question, you think you can afford it because you’ve gotten a compensatory deal in another area. “People think of all the money they’re saving, not the money they’re spending,” says New York City–based psychologist April Lane Benson, who works with shopaholics and is the author of To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop ($19, amazon.com).
So were my $92 powder blue silk trousers affordable? On the one hand, I’m guilty of several of the aforementioned rationales for buying. I purchased them with fantasies of impressing my chic-est friend, told myself that I’d landed a bargain, and paid for them with my credit card. Did I need them? Admittedly, no.
Even so, they were a beautiful, high-quality item being sold at a price that fit my budget. And finally there’s this: According to research, that human tendency to adapt to any purchase, big or small, means that buying smaller, lovely things more frequently (rather than making a few large purchases) tends to maximize happiness. That I can afford."
Plus, here’s the catch: Because we’ve ostensibly saved money, we’re then more likely to overspend. “You save your money in one area, and you may end up spending it in another,” says Christopher Daggett, a senior associate at the New York City– based behavioral consulting firm ideas42. Daggett cites as an example a study in which users of Airbnb, the peer-to-peer lodging company, saved money on lodging in San Francisco but then ended up staying longer and spending more on their trips overall than did hotel guests. Aren’t we all guilty of this? A friend pays for dinner, so you take a cab home instead of public transportation. You don’t eat out for a week, so you feel you have the leeway to splurge on an expensive haircut. Whatever the item or service in question, you think you can afford it because you’ve gotten a compensatory deal in another area. “People think of all the money they’re saving, not the money they’re spending,” says New York City–based psychologist April Lane Benson, who works with shopaholics and is the author of To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop ($19, amazon.com).
So were my $92 powder blue silk trousers affordable? On the one hand, I’m guilty of several of the aforementioned rationales for buying. I purchased them with fantasies of impressing my chic-est friend, told myself that I’d landed a bargain, and paid for them with my credit card. Did I need them? Admittedly, no.
Even so, they were a beautiful, high-quality item being sold at a price that fit my budget. And finally there’s this: According to research, that human tendency to adapt to any purchase, big or small, means that buying smaller, lovely things more frequently (rather than making a few large purchases) tends to maximize happiness. That I can afford."
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Flood.
So Noah woke me up at 3:30 a.m. on this day a few weeks ago and since it had been raining hard and stormy all night, I looked outside and saw the rain starting to collect on the sides of the street & clog up the storm drains. So I thought hmmm.....better check the basement (since flash floods and backed up water in the street can mean water in basement for us). And sure enough there was water starting to come up in our clean out drain in the basement.
Woke up Joe and we began 6 hours of fighting off the water and pushing it into the sump pump to drain out. If we knew how bad it was going to get we probably would have been moving all our storage bins, furniture, carpet, appliances out..........
But we did not know. So at 9:30 a.m. we had to give up and come upstairs since the water started coming up through the floors throughout the entire basement.
Ruined: Freezer, water heater, dryer, mini fridge, couch, flooring, odds & ends.
Thank the Lord they were able to dry out our furnace and get it working again. And all our clothing bins & important kids stuff was salvaged after being washed and dried. Thankful for our in-laws and friends who helped us a great deal.
Took some time to get back up and running - literally but also mentally, emotionally, etc....
It's overwhelming to have something like this happen in so many ways. It was good for us in some ways - to simplify, down-size, go through things and try to see what's really important to hang on to, etc. But it's also very hard to lose cards, photos, things like that. I'm such a sentimental person, so I find memories or some attachment to almost everything (yes, I'm working on this one - but it's just who I am....:) ) So this has been hard. But our upstairs is almost recovered and we are in the decision making process of what to do downstairs. Again - thankful for generous family and friends who have helped us in numerous ways. And looking forward & ahead to getting things more organized and back to normal :)
Just thought I'd share some photos of our road that became a canoe-able river and the property next door that became a lake (with waves?!?!)
perks of unfinished basement: learning to ride a trike!
Woke up Joe and we began 6 hours of fighting off the water and pushing it into the sump pump to drain out. If we knew how bad it was going to get we probably would have been moving all our storage bins, furniture, carpet, appliances out..........
But we did not know. So at 9:30 a.m. we had to give up and come upstairs since the water started coming up through the floors throughout the entire basement.
Ruined: Freezer, water heater, dryer, mini fridge, couch, flooring, odds & ends.
Thank the Lord they were able to dry out our furnace and get it working again. And all our clothing bins & important kids stuff was salvaged after being washed and dried. Thankful for our in-laws and friends who helped us a great deal.
Took some time to get back up and running - literally but also mentally, emotionally, etc....
It's overwhelming to have something like this happen in so many ways. It was good for us in some ways - to simplify, down-size, go through things and try to see what's really important to hang on to, etc. But it's also very hard to lose cards, photos, things like that. I'm such a sentimental person, so I find memories or some attachment to almost everything (yes, I'm working on this one - but it's just who I am....:) ) So this has been hard. But our upstairs is almost recovered and we are in the decision making process of what to do downstairs. Again - thankful for generous family and friends who have helped us in numerous ways. And looking forward & ahead to getting things more organized and back to normal :)
Just thought I'd share some photos of our road that became a canoe-able river and the property next door that became a lake (with waves?!?!)
perks of unfinished basement: learning to ride a trike!
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Mother's Day
We had such a lovely day!
I ended up having to be home with the kids instead of church because of runny noses (seemed fitting for Mother's Day - just doing the everyday mommy thing :)) then after naps we walked to the train station and hopped on a train to Geneva. Had a lovely Mexican dinner and special caribou drinks. It was a perfect day & beautiful weather. Very thankful!!
(Also beats last year as far as missing the train and peeing in the grass in the park in downtown chicago....) :)
And so wonderful to have both babies with us this year!! <3
Mother's Day 2013
And our morning walk to the park - needed to get out of the house :)
Mother's Day 2012
Mother's Day 2011
(Lucy's dedication at church & my grandparents were in town!)
I ended up having to be home with the kids instead of church because of runny noses (seemed fitting for Mother's Day - just doing the everyday mommy thing :)) then after naps we walked to the train station and hopped on a train to Geneva. Had a lovely Mexican dinner and special caribou drinks. It was a perfect day & beautiful weather. Very thankful!!
(Also beats last year as far as missing the train and peeing in the grass in the park in downtown chicago....) :)
And so wonderful to have both babies with us this year!! <3
Mother's Day 2013
And our morning walk to the park - needed to get out of the house :)
Mother's Day 2012
Mother's Day 2011
(Lucy's dedication at church & my grandparents were in town!)
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Summer lovin'
Here's what we have been up to on these warm days (FINALLY!!!!) :) :)
lots of playing with the hose
lots of nakey + boots
lots of saying "hoo HOOO!!!" with hand raised
lots of sandbox playing
lots of morning snuggles
lots of excitement
practice trick or treating
and important phone calls during lots of walks in the stroller
lots of playing with the hose
lots of nakey + boots
lots of saying "hoo HOOO!!!" with hand raised
lots of sandbox playing
lots of morning snuggles
lots of excitement
practice trick or treating
and important phone calls during lots of walks in the stroller
Monday, May 13, 2013
E.R.
Well, we joined the ranks of parents who rush their kids to the ER. It's truly awful. We were both scared out of our minds and didn't know what to do with our sick little man who was pale and lifeless on a friday night nonetheless, with no Dr. offices open.
I held the little guy in my arms as Joe was going way too fast on the small wheaton streets trying to get to the hospital. The Drs and nurses all seemed super worried when we got there because of how N looked - his coloring and how limp he was. Which, seeing how scared Joe was and then how scared the professional staff was made me all the more worried about what was happening and what could potentially happen.
We are so thankful and blessed that N started coming back to "life" - color came back, he started moving more, smiling a little and slowly was back to normal.
His tests all came back ok - so next steps are finding out what the problem really is. We are on 5 weeks of him having awful bouts of throwing up every week. So obviously desiring to get to the bottom of all of this.
Please pray for our little man as you think of it. Thank you friends!
Going through this makes me all the more thankful for each moment God has given us with our precious children. We have friends who are fighting a cancerous tumor with their son - surgeries, radiation, chemo, in and out of the hospital constantly This was SO hard on us for one night, makes me so desirous of being committed to praying for this family and the many others who are going through these struggles daily.
Happy Mother's Day to you all - feeling so very blessed today and thankful for these children of mine.
Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
I held the little guy in my arms as Joe was going way too fast on the small wheaton streets trying to get to the hospital. The Drs and nurses all seemed super worried when we got there because of how N looked - his coloring and how limp he was. Which, seeing how scared Joe was and then how scared the professional staff was made me all the more worried about what was happening and what could potentially happen.
We are so thankful and blessed that N started coming back to "life" - color came back, he started moving more, smiling a little and slowly was back to normal.
His tests all came back ok - so next steps are finding out what the problem really is. We are on 5 weeks of him having awful bouts of throwing up every week. So obviously desiring to get to the bottom of all of this.
Please pray for our little man as you think of it. Thank you friends!
Going through this makes me all the more thankful for each moment God has given us with our precious children. We have friends who are fighting a cancerous tumor with their son - surgeries, radiation, chemo, in and out of the hospital constantly This was SO hard on us for one night, makes me so desirous of being committed to praying for this family and the many others who are going through these struggles daily.
Happy Mother's Day to you all - feeling so very blessed today and thankful for these children of mine.
Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
my little sicky man :(
Poor Noah man has been sick on and off for some weeks now & can't seem to shake this stomach bug that his sister passed down to him.
Finally took him into the Dr. after I took these pics of the little man. He was so worn out from throwing up so much, so pale & couldn't hold up his head and then he fell asleep in my arms, broke my heart.
He is on zantac for his tummy and starting him very slowly back onto foods and is doing ok so far!
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Finally took him into the Dr. after I took these pics of the little man. He was so worn out from throwing up so much, so pale & couldn't hold up his head and then he fell asleep in my arms, broke my heart.
He is on zantac for his tummy and starting him very slowly back onto foods and is doing ok so far!
ahhh - these legs...... :)
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